A lot of people misspell "Tolkien" as Tolkein. This was already the case in Tolkien's time; several passages in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien show Tolkien's frustration about the matter.

History

The first recorded use of Tolkein stems from 1901. The Blue Book of King Edward's School in Birmingham for January of that year includes in the list of pupils: "[Name.] Tolkein … … [Initials.] J.R.R. [Class.] xi [Date of Birth.] 3.1.92 [Came.] 00/3 [=third quarter of 1900] [then Placed. in class] xi [Parent's Initials.] Mrs. [Address.] 214, Alcester Road [Business.] Independent".[2]

Later, the name was used, according to Tolkien, by college, bank, and lawyer's clerks,[4] and more or less all who wrote to him.[5]

Origin

The name Tolkien has often been associated with Jewry. This was in turn because the Jewry of the time had predominantly Yiddish and German names, and the Tolkien family hailed from Saxony, Germany.[4] Since these Yiddish and German names often ended in -stein, it may have been a hypercorrection.